The West will have to contend with two lessons it taught adversaries in 2014: The U.S. negotiates with terrorists and the U.S. government and private sector will cave to threats.

The U.S. negotiated a prisoner release with the Taliban where five high-level Taliban terrorists were released in exchange for a kidnapped U.S. soldier named Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl who deserted and may have even tried to join the enemy side. Taliban chief Mullah Omar hailed the deal as a “huge accomplishment” that “reassures us that our aspirations are on the verge of fulfillment.”

Watch Clarion’s Ryan Mauro speak on “Top Terror Threats of 2015″

Hollywood reinforced the dangerous appeasement when movie theaters caved to threats from hackers linked to North Korea and refused to show The Interview, a comedy about a plot to assassinate North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un. Sony then cancelled the film’s release.

In addition, showings of Team America, another comedy that pokes fun at North Korea, were shut down. A planned thriller film with a storyline related to North Korea was cancelled, even though the hackers never threatened a response to it or even mentioned it.

After public outrage reached a fever pitch and President Obama said Sony made a mistake, the decision was reversed. The Interview was released in limited theaters and online on Christmas as planned, but the damage was done.

In 2015, the West’s enemies will be implementing these lessons.

Iran Outmaneuvers America

The International Atomic Energy Agency confirms that Iran is still not fully disclosing its nuclear program, yet the negotiations and sanctions relief has been extended for another six months. The U.S. even admits privately that Iran is breaking the interim nuclear deal, while the Secretary of State publicly praises Iran’s so-called “compliance.”

These governments need the price of oil to spike up to sustain their budgets. The Iranian regime is undoubtedly infuriated with the Saudis for refusing to decrease oil production and has threatened an oil price war previously.

Iran’s proxies have successfully captured the capital of Yemen, defeating Saudi Arabia’s allies. In 2012, Iran launched a major cyber attack on Saudi Aramco and a natural gas company in Qatar. The Saudis claim the hackers tried to halt oil and natural gas production. The Iranian hackers continue to attack U.S. businesses, energy firms, defense contractors and universities.

In 2015, the low price of oil will maximize the incentives for Iran and other hostile governments to instigate conflict or to even attack Middle Eastern and American energy infrastructure.

The Expansion of Terror Safe Havens

Next year, Islamist terrorists will have growing opportunities to regain the safe havens they lost since 2001 and to expand their current bases.

The Islamic State announced in November that it had expanded from Iraq and Syria into Libya, Algeria, Egypt, Yemen and Saudi Arabia. It killed eight Shiites in Saudi Arabia and shot a citizen of Denmark in Riyadh. At least 60 jihadist groups in 30 countries have expressed solidarity with the Islamic State.

Syria is the brightest prospect for the jihadists.

The Iran-backed Assad regime is winning on the battlefield but has severe weaknesses that will only get worse next year like the regime’s bankruptcy, collapsing infrastructure and lack of manpower. The regime cut subsidies that are essential for maintaining support from its constituencies.

The low oil price will drastically undermine support from Iran and Russia, as well. A Syrian trade official recently admitted that the regime would have fallen without Iranian financial aid.

The U.S.-backed rebels have been ripped to shreds by the Islamic State and Jabhat al-Nusra, Al-Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria. The country is being described as “a patchwork of warring fiefdoms” and “total chaos” is being predicted for 2015. The chances are high that the civil war will spread to Lebanon in a major way.

The often-overlooked civil war continues to rage in Libya where Islamist militias are making gains in eastern Libya against secular forces. The Islamic State conquered the city of Derna and has erected training camps with an estimated 200 terrorists.

The Libyan civil war could spread into neighboring Tunisia and Algeria. The Libyan secularists are scoring some victories in western Libya and Tunisia is sealing border crossings. The new anti-Islamist government of Tunisia is destined for a showdown with Islamist militias like Ansar al-Sharia.

Yemen is also a grand opportunity for jihadists. The Iranian-backed Houthis have captured the capital of Sanaa and is advancing in the central and southern parts of the country, battling Al-Qaeda and other Sunni fighters along the way. This could become a repeat of Syria very shortly.

In Egypt, the military is battling an Islamist insurgency in the Sinai Peninsula. The Islamic State is expanding there and Al-Qaeda’s affiliate there could potentially bounce back from major losses. Members of the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas could join the fight as the Egyptian government tries to dismantle political Islam.

In Afghanistan, the U.S. has pledged to end the official combat mission at the end of this year and reduce U.S. troop levels down to 9,800. The remaining forces will leave by 2016. The Afghan Taliban is making gains in Helmand Province since the U.S. handed security over to the Afghan security forces, but the Afghan forces deserve credit for stopping the Taliban from seizing a single district there.

A secret group of dozens of students backing the Islamic State has arisen in Afghanistan and expressions of support for the Islamic State are being seen in neighboring Pakistan. The Islamic State could also win over hardline elements of the Afghan Taliban opposed to negotiated settlements with the elected government.

The Clarion Project has seen numerous online statements by Islamic State members and supporters enthusiastically talking about replicating in Afghanistan the success they have enjoyed in Iraq once U.S. forces depart Afghanistan.

Islamist terrorists could also become stronger in Central Asia due to jihadists returning from Syria, the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and an apparent rise in support for Islamism, as evidenced by the rise of Hizb ut-Tahrir in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan. Kyrgyzstan has thwarted attacks by terrorists who returned from Syria and sought to spark an insurgency there.

In December, a terrorist group called the Caucasus Emirate attacked the city of Grozny in Chechnya and killed 14 police officers. The Emirate’s Dagestan section then released a videotape declaring allegiance to the Islamic State, even though the emir of the overall group endorsed Al-Qaeda chief Ayman al-Zawahiri.

Homegrown Terror

The unfortunate reality is that a homegrown terrorist attack on U.S. soil is all but certain in 2015.

The Islamic State has inspired a new generation of homegrown terrorists and a study found that the number of Salafist jihadists has doubled since 2010. The number of individual Salafist jihadist groups has doubled since 2001 and the number of attacks has tripled since 2010. The State Department likewise calculated a 40% rise in attacks in 2013 and a 60% rise in fatalities from terrorism.

Based on these trends, it is safe to say that Islamist terrorism will dominate the headlines throughout 2015 as it did for most of 2014.

Ryan Mauro is ClarionProject.org’s national security analyst, a fellow with Clarion Project and an adjunct professor of homeland security. Mauro is frequently interviewed on top-tier television and radio.

The violent conclusion to the Australian hostage taking terrorist siege was inevitable. The terrorist was killed as the Sydney police swat team stormed the café. Even though two hostages were killed, the Sydney police had no choice but to act. After a siege lasting nearly 17 hours, police had good reason to believe that the self-anointed “Sheik” Haron Monis was going to make good on his threat to detonate the bombs he claimed to have unless his demands were met.

There had been an open line between a police hostage negotiator with the terrorist for much of that time but with up to 10 hostages remaining captive, it was feared that the terrorist was going to become a suicide bomber and thus kill everyone in the café. The Sydney police are now involved in investigating and reconstructing the time line of entire incident. But there is no doubt that the Australian police saved the lives of many more hostages.

There should be no doubt that this was a pure act of Islamic terrorism despite ludicrous assertions by some commentators that his “motivations” were unknown. We will see all sorts of “explanations” that because his rap sheet included indictments for sexual assault and murder, he was not really an Islamic terrorist but someone who was simply mentally unstable. Well, the same rationale could be said for all terrorists. After all, who in their right mind would want to kill innocent civilians because of their religious beliefs?

Islamic extremists do. And to deny their radical Islamic motivation—as our own government has done repeatedly in refusing to classify Islamic terrorist attacks as such as in the case of the massacre carried out by Major Nidal Hassan—is a guarantee that such acts will continue to be perpetuated especially by lone wolf terrorists. Australian police are investigating to determine if Monis acted alone or whether he acted in concert with other Islamic extremists or even at the behest of ISIS itself.

Last month, Monis pledged his allegiance to ISIS and renounced his Shiite heritage in an online posting that since has been taken down. Our organization, the Investigative Project on Terrorism, retrieved the page and translated it. Monis wrote:

“Pledge of allegiance [to ISIS] of Sheikh Haron”

“Allegiance with Allah and His Messenger, and the Commander of the Faithful – I pledge allegiance to Allah and His Messenger and the Caliph of the Muslims”

“Praise be to Allah and prayers and peace be upon our Prophet Muhammad, his family and all his companions, and those who follow them and peace be upon the Commander of the Faithful, the Caliph of the Muslims, the Imam of our current era, and praise be to Allah, who made for us a Caliph of the Earth and an imam who summons us to Islam and holds fast to the Rope of Allah Almighty and praise be to Allah that I have had the honor to pledge allegiance to the Imam of our time. Those who swear allegiance to the Caliph of the Muslims are just swearing allegiance to Allah and His Messenger….”

His website also contained rants against the Australian government for their involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Australian intelligence was aware of Monis early on and had an extensive file on him based on his prior radical Islamic activities in Australia and electronic surveillance of his communications with Islamic terrorists overseas.

The terrorist incident in Sydney certainly indicates parallels with the calls for individually driven terrorist attacks by Islamic radicals throughout the West. These calls grew in prominence with Inspire magazine, put out by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) led by Anwar Al-Awlaki until he was killed by a U.S. drone. In calling for Muslims living in western countries to carry out lone wolf terrorist attacks, ISIS has copied the same playbook as AQAP in calling for local attacks whenever and where ever possible. These attacks are happening all over the world now, especially fueled beyond the Internet by the rise of social media which has pushed the message of Islamic terrorism virtually as fast as the speed of light. In the past two years alone, there have been more than 100 attempted or successful ISIS inspired Islamic terrorist attacks in Europe and the United State From Belgium to France to Oklahoma City, no place is immune from Islamic terrorism, whether it be from returning ISIS veterans or just those radical Muslims living in the West who are motivated to carry out attacks.

Moreover, it is a lethal mistake for western leaders to differentiate ISIS from other Islamic terrorist groups such as Hamas, Hizballah, Boko Haram, or Al Shabaab. Those Islamic terrorist groups are motivated by the same underlying motivations behind ISIS: to kill as many of their infidel enemies as possible and impose Islamic supremacy. The only difference is that ISIS has declared itself to be a global caliphate; the other groups are focused on becoming regional caliphates. But their genocidal agenda and tactics are no different than those of ISIS. The only reason Hamas has not been as successful as ISIS in killing its infidel enemies is that Israel has been able to stop Hamas from carrying out acts of mass murder, even though Hamas tried this past summer when it launched more than 6,000 rockets and missiles at Israel in an effort to kill as many civilians as possible. Nigeria on the other hand has been unable to stop the horrific successful attacks by Boko Haram in which more than 300 Nigerians have been slaughtered in the past year alone.

Australian intelligence agencies probably had the best handle on the domestic threat by Islamic extremists as evidenced by their successful interruption of major plots in the past year. Those plots included a plan to behead Australian civilians and a conspiracy to bomb Australian targets. But those were plots planned by conspiracies of multiple extremists. Today’s incident, however, shows the difficulties of stopping lone wolf attacks. What we are witnessing is not the rise of radical Islam. It is only an extension of the rise of radical Islam unleashed by the 9/11 attacks. The difference is that this phase is not directed by centralized organizations. Islamic terrorism has now become decentralized, creating a new challenge for western intelligence agencies. It creates extraordinary pressure to come up with new methods to monitor internal threats which are also a technical challenge as it means monitoring meta data of social media. But the most dangerous and counterproductive act would be to deny that Islamic terrorist attacks are what they are: Islamic terrorist attacks.

Two people, a reserve soldier from Hamilton, Ontario and his apparent murderer, were killed Wednesday morning in an attack that started at Canada’s national War Memorial.

One gunman was shot and killed a short time later inside the nearby Parliament building. It is not yet clear whether additional people were involved in the attack. Video taken by a reporter for Canada’sGlobe and Mail seems to capture a shootout inside the Parliament building that led to the gunman’s death.

Canadian authorities are saying very little. But the murder of 24-year-old Nathan Cirillocomes two days after another Canadian soldier died near Montreal after being run down by a car driven by a recent convert to Islam.

CBS News reported late Wednesday afternoon that Canadian officials informed American counterparts that the dead shooter is Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a Canadian native who was about 32 years old. A Twitter post claimed that the terrorist group ISIS released a picture it claimed was Zehaf-Bibeau.

If Wednesday’s attacker also proves to be a radical Islamist, it would be at least the fourth attack by Muslim radicals in North America in recent months.

Martin Couture-Rouleau, 25, was shot and killed after he rammed his car into two Canadian soldiers Monday. He reportedly told a 911 operator he was acting in the name of Allah. A friend told reporters that Rouleau had grown radical after converting to Islam about a year ago and dreamed of dying as a martyr.

His passport was confiscated and he was among 90 suspected Islamic radicals being monitored by Canadian authorities. During a news conference Wednesday afternoon, officials declined to say whether the man shot and killed in Parliament also was on that watch list.

Last week, before the two attacks, Canada raised its terror-threat level for the first time in four years. A spokesman said the move was prompted by “an increase in general chatter from radical Islamist organizations like (ISIS), Al Qaida, Al Shabaab and others who pose a clear threat to Canadians.” The advisory from Canada’s Integrated Terrorism Assessment Centre (ITAC), warned that “an individual or group within Canada or abroad has the intent and capability to commit an act of terrorism. ITAC assesses that a violent act of terrorism could occur.”

But during Wednesday’s news conference, officials said no additional security was in place at the War Memorial or on Parliament Hill.

The United States also has seen recent killings by people who cited Islamic ideology as their motivation.

Alton Nolen, a convert to Islam, beheaded a co-worker and attacked a second person last month after being fired from his job at a food company. While the murder has been cast as workplace violence, Nolen’s social media posts included a picture of Osama bin Laden and a beheading, in addition to anti-Semitic and anti-American comments. “Sharia law is coming,” read one post, placed under a picture of the Pope.

Meanwhile, a Seattle man, Ali Muhammad Brown, repeatedly invoked his Muslim faith while being interrogated by detectives in connection with four murders from Washington to New Jersey. Each victim was shot repeatedly.

“My life is based on living in the cause of Allah,” Brown said. “Living in the cause of Allah. To live for Allah, to die for Allah.”

While some details of that interrogation have been described in court papers, the Investigative Project on Terrorism obtained a copy of the full one hour and 44 minute conversation.

Brown expressed disdain for gay people – two of his victims are believed to have been gay – describing homosexuality as “completely against nature” but stating the government allows “this evil to fester.”

He repeatedly invoked the idea that an Islamic Caliphate, or Islamic rule, is the only way to restore order to American society. Brown also is suspected in armed robberies in New Jersey. He told detectives he thought about leaving America to “go to the land where God the almighty, Allah, is established and implemented.”

Oklahoma beheading suspect Alton Alexander Nolen calls himself “Jah’Keem Yisrael” on his Facebook page, where he uploaded photos of himself reading the Koran and wearing Muslim religious clothing.

Nolen’s Facebook “cover” photo appears to be of several Taliban fighters, according to a Google reverse image search.

A Philadelphia-based friend asked Nolen if he was praying in one of his photographs at “the Masjid on Luzerne,” appearing to refer to the Muslim American Society of Philadelphia. Nolen replied, “LAA,” to which his friend responded, “oh you not in Philadelphia.”

“I JST WANT TO SAY AS AN MUSLIM WE DNT CELEBRATE AMERIKAS HOLIDAYS,” he wrote in a caption accompanying a photograph of an Islamist fighter.

“KAFIR KAFIRS MEANS SOMEONES WHO DISAGREES WITH ISLAM. JST CAUSE YOU AS-SALAAMU ALAKIUN EVERY MORNING DNT MEANS YOUR AN MUSLIM THANK YOU THO,” he wrote in April, disparagingly referring to non-Muslims or “Kafirs.”

“Ima Tell You Off Top Im Not Your Friend My Friends Are At The Mosque All Around The World,” he wrote in a description of himself. “Im an Muslim from the Tribe of Judah who Was Pretty Much Raised In Killeen Texas. My Ancestors Who Are The True Jews Here In America Today Are Originally From Israel. They Were Bombed Outta Israel By The Roman Catholic Army So They Fled To Egypt And The Afrikans Sold Us To The White Man As Slaves Along With Any Other Black Person Here In Amerika Today Aka The True Jews From Israel. Our Ancestors Are Originally From Israel. Were Not from Afrika.”

His Facebook friends include a variety of Muslims in America, England, and around the world, including multiple friends from the Philadelphia area.

Photo via Facebook

“You know what gets me about Christians is that they blaspheme saying that Jesus (pbus Ameen) is God. If Jesus (pbuh Ameen) was God why when you claim he was on a cross he quoted Quote’ Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they are doing? With this said he can’t be the Savior. All Praise To Allah,” he wrote in another caption.

A Yemeni native was indicted in Rochester, N.Y. Wednesday for attempting to provide material support and resources to the terrorist group Islamic State of Iraq and the Syria (ISIS), which calls itself the Islamic State. Mufid Elfgeeh, a naturalized American, also is accused of plotting to kill U.S. soldiers and of firearms violations.

According to court documents, Elfgeeh tried to help three people travel to Syria to wage violent jihad alongside ISIS forces. Two of the three turned out to be FBI informants. He also sent $600 to help someone in Yemen travel to Syria to join ISIS.

When one of the informants expressed reluctance to leave his family behind, Elfgeeh encouraged him to take his family with him. He gave examples of families participating in jihadist expeditions, including “a Saudi woman who left her children behind and went to the war for jihad.” He also suggested names of “trustworthy people” the informant should contact, including “someone in Jabhat al-Nusrah [al-Qaida affiliate in Syria] who I told you is from our homeland.”

Elfgeeh showed the informant a list of Facebook friends on his iPhone that included a man named Abu Qays, who he “described as a military leader of the Green Battalion in Homs, Syria.” Elfgeeh noted “that the Green Battalion used to be affiliated with al-Nusrah Front [aka Jabhat al-Nusrah], but they separated from them,” adding “[w]e are coordinating with them [the Green Battalion] on the grounds that they want to pledge allegiance to the State (ISIS), and they would like for the State to support them with ammunition and weapons.”

This followed a series of Twitter posts in which he praised al-Qaida and other terrorist groups and said that “the prophet Muhammad preached that people should fight the infidels with the money, their bodies, and their words,” an FBI affidavit said.

Elfgeeh was arrested in May after trying to buy handguns, unregistered silencers and ammunition from one of the informants. Last December, he mentioned the recent al-Shabaab shooting massacre in a Nairobi shopping mall, saying he was “thinking about just go[ing] to buy a big automatic weapon from off the street or something … and just go around and start shooting.”

In March, he talked about how getting a gun and silence was “a big step.” He talked about posting a video statement “[o]nce we do five or ten already, 15, something like that.”

If convicted, Elfgeeh could face 15 years in prison for charges involving material support for terrorists, and a minimum of 30 years for the firearms possession charges.

Israel’s Operation Protective Edge uncovered a comprehensive Hamas training manual that features step-by-step instructions on building homemade bombs. The terrorist manual includes detailed techniques concerning the concealing and detonation of various types explosives.

For example, the manual explains how to produce a television-shaped explosive with shrapnel intended to kill and mutilate as many Israeli victims as possible. Israel Defense Forces (IDF) also discovered different types of mines and remotely detonated bombs throughout the Gaza Strip.

The video below shows one example of Israeli forces encountering a Gaza civilian home rigged with explosives located near a United Nations school.

While the IDF continues to degrade Hamas’ capabilities and the Iron Dome missile defense system neutralizes roughly 85 percent of Hamas rockets targeted, the terrorist organization continues to find other ways to target innocent Israeli civilians.

Click here to see IDF forces exposing a Hamas terrorist tunnel built to store weapons and serve as a critical means to stage future attacks and kidnappings of Israelis.

According to the IDF, more than 2,600 Hamas rockets have been fired from Gaza at Israel since the start of Operation Protective Edge. The IDF has responded to the terrorist threat by striking 3,870 Hamas targets including dozens of underground tunnels.

While Hamas targets innocent Israelis, the terrorist organization continues to use its own population as human shields, utilizing civilian structures as military bases of operations. Hamas exploits schools, civilian homes, and mosques as bases to launch rockets at Israel and host weapons and rockets. Hamas even uses hospitals as command and control centers and ambulances as transport vehicles.

Click here to see video footage of Hamas using ambulances to move its terrorist fighters. When ambulances are used for military purposes, they may be targeted according to international law. In this video, the IDF chose not to target the ambulance in this instance to avoid the possibility of non-combatant casualties.

The Wafa hospital in the Shejaia neighborhood was converted into a command center, rocket-launch pad, sniper’s position and weapons storage depot. The hospital now serves as a cover for Hamas’ underground tunnel system and base for terrorist attacks against Israeli civilians and troops.

Click here to watch video confirming Hamas attacks from the Wafa hospital, the Israeli warning calls for civilians to flee the area, the subsequent IDF airstrike and secondary explosions confirming the hospital’s use as a weapons storage facility.

A convert to Islam who led a small, radical movement called “Revolution Muslim” will serve 2 ½ years in prison for Internet postings that may have inspired terrorist violence.

Yousef Al-Khattab, 45, pleaded guilty in October to “using the internet to place another in fear of death or serious injury.”

He helped create Revolution Muslim in 2007, along with Jesse Craig Morton. Morton isserving an 11 ½ year sentence for using the Internet to solicit murder, including against a woman who promoted “Everybody Draw Mohammed Day.”

According to a prosecution sentencing memo, which recommended a three-year sentence, Al-Khattab was only slightly less precise. In 2009, he posted a video “encouraging viewers upset about Israeli military actions in Gaza to seek out the leaders of Jewish organizations in America and ‘deal with them directly at their homes.'” He provided the addresses of three large New York synagogues and the Brooklyn headquarters of the Chabad movement.

In a separate post later that month, he showed a picture of the Chabad headquarters and a map. “Make EVERY attempt to reach these people and teach them the message of Islam or leave them a message from Islam,” Al-Khattab wrote.

Al-Khattab and Morton succeeded in inspiring followers, and the memo cites numerous examples of people caught plotting attacks and one successful knife attack on a British parliamentarian.

Al-Khattab’s involvement in Revolution Muslim dropped off in 2009, but he “set in motion a sequence of events that … spiraled into even more serious criminal activity” and “likely emboldened” Morton and others. He has expressed some regret for his actions, prosecutors noted, but “the messages that he posted on internet sites patronized by terrorists and their sympathizers likely will never disappear. Regardless of any regrets that he may have now, Chabad and the leaders of the Jewish organizations identified by Al-Khattab in 2009 will always be marked as targets for those who seek to gain entrance to heaven by killing an enemy of Islam.”

FBI agents arrested a 20-year-old convert to Islam at the Canadian border early Monday morning as he tried to cross into Canada. Nicholas Teausant, who now goes by the name Assad, hoped to get to Syria to fight alongside the most radical, violent jihadist group fighting dictator Bashar al-Assad.

Teausant is a private in the National Guard facing discharge. According to a criminal complaint charging him with attempting to provide material support to terrorists, he never attended basic training.

But he boasted that he could bring skills “most brothers wouldn’t particularly have” to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). Al-Qaida disavowed the group in February and demanded it leave Syria.

Teausant seemed especially determined to join the group and its jihad, telling an FBI informant to stop trying to talk him out of it, an affidavit attached to the complaint said. Neither his parents nor his girlfriend knew his plans, he told the informant. His girlfriend would turn him in if she found out. He also expressed a willingness to kill his mother if she tried to stop him.

“I love her,” he said, “but she’s still a kufar [infidel or non-believer].”

Teausant told the informant that he made a point of keeping his radical views a secret. His Twitter and Facebook accounts do portray someone starkly at odds with the man described in the affidavit. His Twitter profile describes himself as “Muslim, Army, Father, and Lonely. to rethink my life and try to be better person”. Most recent posts deal with video gaming. A Facebook posting from last Thursday expressed shock at learning “my closest friend has never seen/heard of Starwars ever…Blasphemy!!!”

He converted to Islam about two years ago. “I promote Jihad, Not terrorism,” he wrote on a personal blog Jan. 8, “and yes there is a difference.” But he also read al-Qaida’s Inspire magazine and investigated ways to carry out some of the ideas it suggested.

“I despise america and want its down fall but yeah haha. Lol,” he wrote last May. “I been part of the army for two years now and I would love to join Allah’s army but I don’t even know how to start.”

During a Feb. 10 meeting, he told the informant he did not plan to come back to the United States. “I’m going to be a commander and I’m going to be on the front of every single newspaper in the country,” he said. In a later meeting, he said he wanted to get to Syrian before ISIS launched an anticipated offensive against another anti-Assad group, the Free Syrian Army.

FBI agents watched him board an Amtrak train Saturday night in Lodi, Cal. Sunday night, he boarded a bus in Seattle that would take him into Canada. FBI agents arrested him at a border crossing in Blaine, Wash.

The charge carries a maximum 15-year prison sentence if Teausant is convicted.

Arguments that terror prosecutions are criminalizing protected speech took another hit Wednesday, when the First Circuit Court of Appeals upheld terror-support convictions against Tarek Mehanna.

Mehanna is serving 17½ years in prison after a Boston juryconvicted him in 2011 of conspiracy to provide material support to al-Qaida, conspiracy to commit murder abroad, providing material support to terrorists and lying to federal investigators.

Likening terrorism to a “modern-day equivalent of the bubonic plague,” the First Circuit Court of Appeals found jurors had ample grounds to find Mehanna’s activities crossed the line into illegal material support. The ruling by Circuit Judge Bruce M. Selya acknowledged a delicate balance between “vital national security concerns and forbidden encroachments on constitutionally protected freedoms of speech and association.”

But the evidence supports the verdict and Mehanna’s sentence because his work was done in coordination with al-Qaida in an attempt to benefit the terrorist group.

The appellate court at times took a dismissive tone in addressing Mehanna’s arguments to overturn his conviction. Some were cast aside as “meritless,” while others were described as “convoluted theories” and “fishing in an empty stream.”

Arguments offered in amicus, or friend of the court, briefs by Mehanna supporters including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also found little traction. In many cases, the external briefs raised issues Mehanna had not. “The law is settled that amici cannot ordinarily introduce into a case issues not briefed and argued by the appellant,” the ruling said.

Mehanna’s case drew sympathy from Islamist groups and others. ACLU Massachusetts Executive Director Nancy Murray wrote after the conviction that Mehanna’s case proved that, “There is a Muslim exception to the First Amendment,” and that Muslims were being prosecuted for “thought crime.”

But the appellate court stood by the jury’s verdict in rejecting such arguments.

Mehanna came under investigation in 2006. By then, he already had traveled to Yemen in hopes of reaching a terrorist training camp. When that didn’t work, he returned to Sudbury, Mass., where he began translating and posting material supporting al-Qaida and “Salafi-Jihadi perspectives,” the court wrote.

The man who calls himself Abu Muslim sits with his fellow fighters, members of the group Katiba al Muhajireen, and raises his rifle for the camera. He has come to Aleppo to fight, he tells the man who has come to interview him for Britain’s Channel 4. A Muslim convert, he – like some 100 others joining the jihad in Syria’s civil war – has left his family at home. In Canada.

The United States’ neighbor to the north is experiencing a radicalization problem, according to a confidential report by the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Made public earlier this year through a Freedom of Information Act request filed by Canada’s National Post, the report confirms that “Islamist extremists are now radicalizing Canadians at a large number of venues,” ranging from mosques to dinner parties and even the family home.

“Parents have radicalized children, husbands have radicalized wives (and some wives have radicalized or supported their husbands,” the study’s authors contend, “and siblings have radicalized each other.”

Indeed, according to one assessment cited by the Canadian Broadcasting Company (CBC), “with the exception of the United States, there are more terrorist groups active in Canada today than in any other country in the world.” And while most of their activity is based abroad, a study published earlier this year by the International Institute for Counterterrorism (IIC) shows that 25 individuals have developed or been involved in four plots against Canadian targets since 2006. Of these, eight were Canadian born; three were converts to Islam; and 20 – nearly all – were between the ages of 18 and 35. Most were affiliated with al-Qaida. Among them:

The “Toronto 18,” arrested in 2006 for plans to behead Canada’s prime minister, along with a host of other schemes, including bombing the Toronto Stock Exchange, the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service office in Toronto, and other targets;

A group of three Muslims, Hiva Mohammad Alizadeh, Misbahuddin Ahmed, and Khurram Syed Sher – a physician and former “Canadian Idol” contestant – accused in 2010 of plotting terrorist attacks and making bombs;

Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, arrested earlier this year on charges they were planning to bomb an Amtrak/Via passenger train running between New York and Toronto;

John Nuttail and Amanda Korody, converts charged with planning to celebrate Canada Day (July 1) this year by using pressure cooker bombs to blow up the British Columbia Provincial legislature in Victoria.

This does not include the hundreds more suspected of taking part in terrorist attacks abroad, including at least 100 of Canada’s jihadists who, like Abu Muslim, have headed off to join the fighting in Syria. (Abu Muslim is now suspected to have taken part in an attack on an Abu Duhur military airport this past summer.) Notably, while the Muslim population of Canada is smaller than that of the U.S., more Canadian than American Muslims are thought to have joined radical groups in the Syrian conflict.

But it isn’t just in Syria: Canadian radicals have also been involved in attacks elsewhere: the suicide bombing of a courthouse in Mogodishu; the bombing, by members of Hizballah, of a bus in Bulgaria carrying a group of Israeli tourists; and the attack on a gas plant in January which killed hundreds of refinery workers in Algeria.

Most visible, and certainly among the most active of these Muslim extremists, is the controversial Khadr family, most or all of whom are alleged to be members of al-Qaida. (Father Ahmed Said Khadr, who emigrated to Canada in 1977 from Egypt and was killed battling Pakistani forces in Afghanistan in 2003, was believed to be an al-Qaida founding member and financier.)

Not all of Canada’s Islamic terrorist activity involves violence, however. Financing for foreign terror groups has a long history in the country, as terror expert Ilan Berman testified before the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security in 2011. Other Canadian investigations during the 1990s also revealed connectionsto Hizballah that “reportedly includes the procurement of funds, human smuggling, especially into the United States, and the provision of safe houses from which future attacks can be plotted.” (Whether or not those connections still exist today is unclear.)

A founder of a radical Islamist website pleaded guilty Thursday to using the Internet to espouse jihadi attacks against Jewish organizations.

Yousef Mohamid Al-Khattab (a.k.a. Joseph Cohen), co-founder of the “Revolution Muslim” websites, pleaded guilty to using his position as leader of a radical Islamist website to place Jewish organizations, including a Chabad in Brooklyn, NY, “in reasonable fear of death or serious bodily injury.”

Court records show that in March 2008 Al-Khattab posted a video to the Revolution Muslim website praising the “martyrdom operation” of a Palestinian who had attacked a Jewish school in Jerusalem killing eight students and injuring 11 more. The video referred to the attacker as an “Islamic warrior” who “slaughtered eight rabbinical students in Merkaz HaRav, which is a Yeshiva [Jewish religious school] the Zionist War Machine uses to train its religious soldiers.”

Al-Khattab also praised the deadly November 2008 terrorist siege in Mumbai, where terrorists attacked multiple targets including a Chabad House. Six people were brutally murdered at the Chabad House, including the rabbi and his wife. Al-Khattab justified the attack saying the Chabad supported Israel.

In January 2009, Al-Khattab posted a video encouraging viewers upset with the conflict in Gaza to target Jewish Federation chapters in the U.S. and “deal with them directly at their homes.” The video provided the names and addresses of three New York-area synagogues as well as the photo and map of a Chabad organization in Brooklyn. It showed images from a rally that included several Hasidic Jews supporting Israeli actions in Gaza. Above the video image was the text, “Do Not Let Orthodox Judaism Get Away from Murder in Ghaza.” Under the image, Al-Khattab wrote, “Make EVERY attempt to reach these people and teach them the message of Islam or leave them a message from Islam.”

Al-Khattab founded the Revolution Muslim website in 2007 along with Jesse Morton, also known as Younus Abdullah Muhammad, “to operate Internet platforms and websites to encourage Muslims to support Osama bin Laden, Anwar al-Awlaki, al Qaeda, the Taliban, and others engaged in espousing violent jihad.” In June 2012, a federal judge sentenced Morton to 138 months in prison. Revolution Muslim administrator Zachary Chesser was sentenced to 25 years in prison in February 2011.

Al-Khattab faces a maximum of five years in prison at his sentencing, which is scheduled for Feb. 7.

Two New York City men were arrested Friday and charged with conspiring to funnel money and equipment to terrorist groups, including al-Qaida and the Taliban, fighting American forces in Afghanistan.

Humayoun Ghoulam Nabi, a Pakistani national, and Ismail Alsarabbi, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Kuwait, allegedly conspired to supply Afghan mujahideen with warm winter clothing and other supplies to better equip them to fight U.S. troops in the region. According to the complaint issued by the district attorney in Queens, New York, Nabi admitted “he had engaged in a plan to provide outerwear and boots to fighters in Afghanistan who were fighting American soldiers and that he did so because he hates the United States, Jewish people, and US soldiers specifically and that he wanted to give those fighting the Americans equipment that would level the playing field.”

Nabi told a government informant that “America’s strength is their equipment, specifically good jackets, good goggles, good GPS, and this was how they fight.” He suggested sending jackets and other supplies to the Afghan fighter “so they can get warm … and realize they got something to fight with.” He confided “that the governments in Muslim countries cannot be trusted to stand up for pious Muslims.” He further compared “his efforts to those of Osama bin Laden” and said he wanted to build a “Leshkar” or small army to fight the Americans.

Nabi confided to the informant that “he was involving himself in a non-profit from which he could build resources and money which he could then siphon away and provide to the brothers fighting in Afghanistan.” He added, “We are sitting here breathing in peace eating chicken and roasts and our brothers, they are dying buddy.” Referring to American soldiers in Afghanistan, Nabi said that “they [Afghan mujahideen] should kill them and then cut them into pieces.”

In March 2012, on the advice of Alsarabbi, a Palestinian associate and co-defendant in the case, Nabi wired approximately two thousand dollars through the Western Union bank to his father in Lahore, Pakistan. Nabi later confided in the informant that his father had “zillions of trucks” moving in and out of Kabul.

“The arrests of these two New York City residents, Nabi and Alsarabbi, demonstrate the spectrum of terrorism threats that the New York City Police Department must continue to guard against,” New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a Justice Department press release. “The cold weather gear and electronics the pair sought to provide could have endangered the safety of Americans as much as supplies of guns and ammunition.”

Kenya’s foreign minister told PBS Monday that two or three of the al-Shabaab terrorists who killed at least 68 people during an attack an siege at Nairobi mall last weekend were American teenagers.

The al-Qaida-affiliated terrorist group’s recruitment of Somali teens in the United States and Canada is well documented. Federal prosecutors have charged and convicted dozens of people for providing material support to the group and other related crimes.

In this 2010 interview with the Investigative Project on Terrorism, Osman Ahmed explained why al-Shabaab’s recruitment of young Somalis in America posed a wider threat than just Somalia. Ahmed’s nephew was killed by Al-Shabaab terrorists after relatives complained about their relatives being solicited to join the group.

While the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) issued a statement condemning the Nairobi attack as a “heinous crime,” it made no reference to al-Shabaab or the radical Islamist ideology which drives it. Pressed by the New York Post Tuesday, CAIR spokesman Ibrahim Hooper dismissed the significance of seeing American recruits help al-Shabaab’s slaughter.

“It doesn’t matter who’s involved in it,” Hooper said. “Terrorism is terrorism, whether it is Americans involved or anyone from any nation or background. Who cares?”

That’s consistent with an overall “see no evil” attitude CAIR has exhibited on Somali-Americans joining al-Shabaab. The group attempted to silence Somali-Americans who tried to alert the public about the problem. Abdirizak Bihi, whose nephew was killed by al-Shabaab after having second thoughts about joining the terrorist group, described how CAIR worked with officials at a local mosque to discourage Somali-Americans from cooperating with federal law enforcement officials. “We held three different demonstrations against CAIR, in order to get them to leave us alone so we can solve our community’s problems, since we don’t know CAIR and they don’t speak for us,” Bihi said in 2011 congressional testimony. “We wanted to stop them from dividing our community by stepping into issues that don’t belong to them.”

CAIR-Michigan director Dawud Walid dismissed Bihi’s testimony before a House committee about radicalization within the American Muslim community, writing on Twitter that “Bihi has basically a one person organization and is not seen as a leader by Somali-Americans.”

CAIR also called Bihi and an associate “anti-Muslim” for their participation in a seminar which included a discussion about al-Shabaab as “An Islamic Extremist Organization.”

That’s a standard CAIR modus operandi – stigmatize anyone who gets in the group’s way with baseless allegations of bigotry and hope the public ignores them. That strategy looks even more depraved in light of the bloodshed in Nairobi. If it doesn’t matter now, when would it?

Making the absence of proof a proof of its own, the Council on American-Islamic Relations argues that the FBI’s failure to identify Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev as terrorist threats before the Boston Marathon bombings proves that counter-terror stings don’t work. That’s among a series of fatuous claims and misguided recommendations in written testimony CAIR submitted to a House committee last week.

The testimony minimized the theological underpinnings driving terrorism by al-Qaida and other Islamists and offered instead a series of grievances and misguided policy recommendations that do nothing to avoid future attacks like Boston’s.

CAIR long has cast FBI terrorism sting operations as entrapment, an argumentrejected by Attorney General Eric Holder and one that has never proven successful in court. Its proponents are wrong on the facts “or do not have a full understanding of the law,” Holder said in 2010.

Yet, in its testimony, CAIR said it “believes that stings should be executed to prevent crime, not create criminals.” Rather than stopping people like the Tsarnaevs – committed to waging jihad in the United States – CAIR said successful stings “contributed to a false sense of security within the FBI that led to its agents missing a more well-guarded threat like Tamerlan Tsarnaev. While well-publicized FBI sting operations create an official narrative that the government is preventing acts of terrorism, they have little to no effect in stopping real tragedies like the Boston attacks, the Fort Hood shooting, the growing list of mass shootings in places like Virginia Tech, Tucson, Arizona, Newtown, Connecticut, and Aurora, Colorado perpetrated by disturbed individuals, or near misses like the failed Times Square bombing.” [Emphasis original]

Under this logic, law enforcement gets no credit for interdicting a terrorist attack before anyone is hurt, but it gets the blame when people like the Tsarnaevs slip through the cracks. As we’ve noted, sting operations include numerous opportunities for the suspect to back out, but when they choose not to, the investigations thwart people determined to carry out mass casualty attacks in public places.

The Obama administration’s policy banning references to “Islamic extremism” and “jihad” in discussions about terrorism drew criticism during last Thursday’s House Homeland Security Committee hearing on the Boston Marathon bombings.

The bombings “should again teach us that the enemy we face is violent Islamist extremism, not just al Qaida,” said former U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman. “Osama bin Laden is dead. And the remaining leadership of al Qaida is on the run, but the ideology of violent Islamist extremism is rapidly spreading.”

The Boston investigation already has shown that Tamerlan and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev “adopted the outrageously false narrative of violent Islamist extremism, that Islam and America are involved in a struggle to the death with each other,” Lieberman said.

It has been more than five years since the Department of Homeland Security, under the Bush administration, issued a directive about “the difficult terrain of terminology” as recommended by unidentified academics and Muslim American activists. “Jihadist” and “Islamist terrorist” were identified as terms to be avoided. Jihad “glamorizes terrorism, imbues terrorists with religious authority they do not have, and damages relations with Muslims around the globe,” the memo said.

By identifying them as mere extremists or criminals, they lose some of the luster that attracts recruits, the argument goes.

Is it working? How can you tell?

Anecdotally, this strategy did nothing to dissuade the Tsarnaevs, or any of the otherhomegrown terrorist plotters in recent years. The policy’s effectiveness is difficult, if not impossible, to quantify. But skeptics, such as Monterey Terrorism Research and Education Program Director Jeffrey M. Bale, say the language policy is illogical.

“Why, after all, would Muslims look to non-Muslims to interpret their religion for them, or for guidance about how to identify and label Islamists?” Bale said in response to an email from the Investigative Project on Terrorism. “Indeed, if we call jihadists ‘criminals,’ it may actually have the counterproductive effect of garnering more sympathy for them given the levels of anti-U.S. and anti-Western hostility throughout the Muslim world.”

Jihadists routinely make it plain that – while religion may not be the sole factor driving them to violence – their Islamic beliefs and identities dominate their thinking. “We in the West just don’t seem to want to believe what they constantly say,” Bale wrote. (Read his full response here.)